Ep235: Disney Magic During the Holidays

The Candlelight Processional is a time honored tradition held at Disneyland and at Walt Disney World at Epcot. During the ceremony choirs accompanied by an orchestra and a guest celebrity narrator perform the story Christian story of Christmas. Below you’ll see a photo of the living tree that Gavin talked about in this episode.

(Photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG, 2016)

Check out this amazing list of narrators ranging back to 1961:

Dennis Morgan (1961-1964)

Dick Van Dyke(1965) (Walt’s last Candlelight ceremony)

Dennis Morgan (1966)

Gregory Peck & Dean Jones (1967)

Henry Fonda & Rock Hudson(1968)

Gary Grant (1969)

Charlton Heston & Dean Jones (1970)

John Wayne (1971)

Rock Hudson (1972)

Cary Grant (1973-1974)

Jimmy Stewart (1975)

Rock Hudson (1976)

Buddy Ebsen & Ed Asner(1977)

Cary Grant (1978)

Elliot Gould & Joseph Cotton (1979)

Michael Landon (1980)

Ed Asner & Jason Robards(1981)

Pat and Shirley Boone (1982)

Darren McGavin (1983)

Joseph Campanella (1984)

Kevin Dobson (1985)

Craig T. Nelson & Elliot Gould (1986)

Howard Keel (1987):

Joseph Campanella (1988)

John Forsythe (1989)

James Earl Jones (1990)

Robert Urich (1991)

George Kennedy (1992)

Michael York (1993)

Peter Graves (1994)

David Ogden Stiers (1995)

Mary Hart (1996)

Joseph Campanella (1997)

Richard Crenna & Edward James Olmos (1998)

Olympia Dukakis (1999)

John Tesh & Barry Bostwick (2000)

David Ogden Stiers (2001)

Mickey Rooney & Stephen Collins (2002)

Louis Gossett, Jr. & Marie Osmond (2003)

Marie Osmond (2004)

Dick Van Dyke (2005)

Andy Garcia & Hector Elizondo (2006)

Jane Seymour (2007)

John Stamos (2008)

Jon Voight (2009)

Tom Skerritt (2010)

Gary Sinise (2011)

Dennis Haysbert (Dec. 1-2, 2012)

Kurt Russell (Dec. 3-5, 2012)

Edward James Olmos (Dec. 6-8, 2012)

Lou Diamond Phillips (Dec. 9-11, 2012)

Dick Van Dyke (Dec. 12-13, 2012)

Dennis Haysbert (Dec. 14, 2012)

Patricia Heaton (Dec. 15-16, 2012)

Molly Ringwald (Dec. 17-19, 2012)

John Stamos (Dec. 20, 2012)

Kurt Russell & Blair Underwood (2013)

Beau Bridges (2014)

Geena Davis & Lana Parilla (2015)

Gennifer Goodwin (2016)

Chris Hemsworth (2017)

Chris Pratt (2018)

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As mentioned in this episode, if you’re still looking for a special Disney-related gift for someone this holiday season, books are always a great choice! Here is a list of the books we talked about in this episode. Please note that these are affiliate links and we earn a small commission from Amazon as a thank you from them if you purchase via our link.

Heyzen’s book choices:

Gavin’s book choices:

Melissa’s book choices:

Honorable mentions:

“Honorable mentions” may not be the best way to describe these books because they certainly deserve a spot on the pantheon of Disney books. We wanted to keep the lists short to help the episode stay as short as possible but there are just so many amazing books that we still had to include these (still knowing that there’s many others that belong on these lists).